Doula for a Day

I had some major excitement this week.

A while ago, my friend Andrea, who I mentioned in the baby shower post, asked me to be in the room to assist with her labor when she delivered Harper.  She was planning a natural labor with no epidural.  Knowing I had delivered both my girls without epidurals, she thought I would be a good resource to provide motivation and encouragement (and maybe a little knowledge) to help her get through.  I was honored, of course, and gladly accepted the role of doula for a day.  I've often thought about becoming a certified doula, so helping Andrea was a perfect way to really try it out.

Sunday morning, which just happened to be Andrea's due date, the excitement began!  I won't go into the gorey details, but let's just say she had the first signs of labor when she woke up, and things gradually progressed throughout the day.  She got to the hospital around 7pm, and I arrived not too long after.  The first time they checked her to see how far she'd progressed, which was around 9pm, she was 3-4cm.  The midwife said that was good enough and she could stay there.  In her words, "We can do this thing tonight."  Yay!

I know Andrea was a little discouraged to hear she was only 3-4cm, but I told her that things can progress really quickly.  You just never know.  As it turns out, I was right.  She got up and walked around the hospital for about an hour, and then her contractions started hurting a good bit worse.  She came back to the room, and when I saw her face, I knew she was in a good bit more pain.  She just thought her pain level as at an 8 (out of 10) before she started walking!  I don't remember them asking again, but judging by the look on her face, I'm guessing it was around a 12 or 13 by the time she got back.  Of course, I knew that meant she was making progress.  The next time they checked her, she was 6-7cm.  Whoo!

Things really seemed to fly after that.  By 11:45pm, they checked again and saw that she was 9.5cm.  The nurse called the midwife and it was time to push!  Sweet Andrea kept saying, "I can't believe it's time to push."  She was kind of out of it, but really, I couldn't believe it was time to push either.  When I got to the hospital and she was 3-4cm at 9pm, I was thinking it would be at least 4am before she started pushing.  Boy was I wrong!

Andrea pushed for maybe 40 minutes, and beautiful Harper Irene was born at 12:31am.  I have to say that the pushing is the best part.  I finally got to be on the other end of things (literally) and see what's actually going on.  It's so cool.  You may think it's gross, but I was intrigued.  I wanted to see what everything looked like.  The placenta, the umbilical cord, the baby crowning.  All of it.  I've actually contemplated video taping Josiah's birth so that I could see everything, but I heard the hospital won't allow anyone to video the actual birth.  Bummer, huh?  I guess I've seen it all now anyway, so it's all good.

I have to thank Andrea for allowing me to be there.  Thank you, Andrea.  It was such an honor, and I really had so much fun.  It's very rewarding to be able to use my own experience and knowledge to help someone else, especially a dear friend.  I don't know if I'll ever pursue a doula certification, but I certainly enjoyed being doula for a day.